Food safety question

Anova Precision® Cooker
1

So, yesterday I made the Carnitas recipe from the blog (and it was delicious). I cut up and portioned several pounds of pork plus aromatics in several FoodSaver bags.The cook started Saturday evening; today is Monday.

Here’s my question: this evening, I discovered that I’d left a bag in the cooking vessel. Since I never unplugged the Anova, I know that the temperature never dropped below 92F (from a cook temp of 165F). I threw the bag in the fridge and will freeze it later. Or, maybe, throw it out.

Is there any possibility that I have a microbe farm? Remember, everything went into the bags fresh, was brought up to 165F, and kept there for 24 hours. Then one bag was allowed to drop to 92F over time. There was no breach in any of the bags, although I did have a bit of inflation.

Thanks for any opinions.

2

You should have no worries. The bag was vacuum sealed and then pasteurized, so it should be fine.

If for some weird reason when you open it smells funky, then maybe toss it, but I really doubt that will be an issue.

3

When in doubt, sniff it out

4

Unfortunately you cannot be guaranteed that pasteurization killed all of the pathgenic spores. These can start growing during the time at lower temperature. While this does not happen every time there is still a risk from these spores. The risk escalates for people with compromised immune systems. Also your nose is not a good indicator of food safety. Often time pasteurization is confused with the much higher temperature process of sterilization. Again the risk is low but my mantra has always been “When in doubt throw it out”

Here is a rather lengthy article on the subject.

2 Likes
5

Thanks @john.jcb this is really great information. Definitely a better tip than mine (when it doubt, throw it out)!

You’re right, sometimes it’s just not worth the risk!

6

Okay, thanks. Having just gone through a bout of food poisoning, I’m going to err on the side of caution. Fortunately it’s not a great deal of pork that will go in the trash, and I still have quite a lot of the rest of it repackaged and frozen.